Paying for School

Blogs are a place to rant, and so, today, I will.

Public schools in L.A. are fucked up. It is tragic, frustrating and infuriating. Real public figures have suggested in public places that LAUSD is like the Kremlin--that it is so rotten, bureaucratic and labyrinthine--that the only way to fix it is to blow it up. (Yes, I really heard someone say this, and it was not an underground rally but a well-attended session at the LA book fair).

Budget cuts have made everything worse.

Our kids now receive so little money from the state that if I am not mistaken (part of ranting and blogging is NOT fact-checking) California schoolchildren rank in the bottom 10 states in per pupil spending in the country. Westchester County public school students get something like $24,000 per student annually. California kids get something like $7,500. It is an embarassment. It has reached the point where some top public schools now have 25 kids in a kindergarten class.

Have the people making these cuts ever been in a class with 25 kindergarteners?

This means, that if you are a parent, and you want your kid to learn ANYTHING, you are going to have to step up, volunteer, and, yes, probably give a lot of money to your school. Some schools ask for a number. Wonderland asks for $750 a kid. Ivanhoe has had pledge drives to save teachers where they accept checks from parents at drop off. The list goes on. And that does not even include the endless fundraisers--bakesales, silent auctions, yard sales, photo weekends, festivals...

Well, my son is at a charter school, which makes everything worse. Because we are getting 30% less money than a regular public school, and have to find a site, and, there is a built in animosity from the public schools who, rightfully or wrongfully, regard us as the competition. So the pledge drive and fundraising take on heightened significance. Our school must raise $1,800 a kid, somehow, to keep doing what it is doing, which is pretty stellar. We have a commitment to socioeconomic diversity, of having at least 30-40% Title I kids in our school, so that means we have to be creative. We can't just ask everyone to write a check.

In exchange we get to pick our own prinicipal, who in turn picks her own teachers. She can hire her own art teacher, music teacher, p.e. teacher and gardening teacher, and the amazing teachers who do everything else. She can do the Edible Schoolyard program and she can act immediately when she sees something going wrong. This is huge.

Well, it is the fundraising season. And how crazy it is.

I do not do fundraising. I am uncomfortable asking for money. I give in other ways. But my husband is leading the charge.

But here is what is blowing my mind: educating your kid takes money. It just does. It should not be that way. It is not fair. The way we treat a kids shows what we really think about society, which is, if you are rich, pay a lot and send your kids to a top private school and don't worry about what happens to the rest of society, if you don't ship em off to the school down the block, which. to their credit, is going to do their very very best with the pathetic amount of money they have. Somewhere, in big offices downtown, a lot of administrators are being paid fat salaries while teachers lose job security, get pink slips, or, for the older ones in the union, coast along without doing much, secure until they retire.

Well, our school is just finishing its fundraising effort. We are aiming for 100% participation, and we will get it. Even teachers give. But here is what blows my mind on this Tuesday morning. Some families I know live in tiny apartments, drive beaters, and both parents have just lost their jobs. They are sacrificing and making HUGE payments. It actually hurts me--in a good way--to hear what they are giving. Others drive big cars and live what from the outside looks like a lavish lifestyle (you never really know in L.A.). They give $50.

And I don't understand.

I know I do not know all the details. You never do.

And yet, it is hard to watch. People say they care about education, but I look at our little community and I think we, too, are just a microcosm of society itself. We want everything for nothing. We want top teachers, music, creative education, personal attention, small class size, an aesthetically pleasing campus, love, attention for ourselves and our children. We want the education to be as good as the Center for Early Education, that looms like a castle across the blacktop. But those same people are not willing to shell out the money to get us where we need to be to provide the basics.

Some do.

Some go so far beyond the call of duty you want to tell them, "that is enough. take care of yourself." You want to publicly recognize them and sing their praises and drag them by the sleeve to stand in front of others who have so much to say,"See this person? Do you see what they have done???"

But it is private. Probably to keep more people from feeling like me. I wish I didn't know.

And I guess it is like all of life. Some people just care more.

I have no answer.

Perhaps, for today, all I have is judgement. But I am also genuinely puzzled. How do you expect your school to do great things for your child if you know the numbers, you know what it takes, you know what it costs, and still you do not give. That is the part I do not understand.

What do you think?